Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum(right) with Shannon Wight, associate director of the Partnership for Safety and Justice

Property and violent crime fell by 25 percent between 2000 and 2010. Yet, unless state corrections policies change, Oregon is on track to add 2,000 more prison beds over the next decade, at a cost of $600 million. That's on top of the existing $1.4 billion corrections budget. Last Saturday, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum signaled she is prepared to back major revisions to sentencing guidelines, including those mandated by voters through Measure 11 in 1994 and Measure 57 in 2008. "Nothing – Nothing is sacred," Rosenblum told a statewide gathering of the Partnership for Safety and Justice in Keizer Oregon, Sept. 8. "All of our state's felony sentencing structure has to be on the table for review."

Research by the Pew Center for the States, found more than 50 percent of the expected rise in Oregon's prison population would constitute people convicted of property crimes (36 percent) and drugs charges (17 percent)(Pdf. file) . The same study shows that 66 percent of people imprisoned in 2011 were rated as low or medium risk, up from 55 percent in 2005.A Focus on Prevention Rosenblum contrasted spiraling prison spending with cuts to victims' services. More than 20,600 requests for emergency shelter from victims of domestic violence were turned down in 2011, for example. "We need to invest in life-saving services for victims, not only because it's smart spending, but because it's the right thing to do," she said. "We need to lake a long hard look on how we're spending our public safety dollars. Let's begin with a focus on victims' services, re-entry programs and substance abuse treatment. "In my view we should all be focused on shifting our public safety spending to prevention-based strategies, such as victims' services, addiction treatment and recovery, and re-entry programs," she said. "After all last year 4500 inmates were released from prison. Where are they all going? Are we taking care of them and making sure they aren't going to be back in prison in six months? "Evidence-based law enforcement strategies, prison programs, including mental health treatment and vocational programming: We need to prepare people to succeed when they return to the community. We need to help people rejoin society and not live a lifetime on the fringe."

Rosenblum spoke to Ted Salter, a longtime community activist at Partnership for Safety and Justice's statewide gathering

Campaign: "Stand Strong for Safety and Savings" About 120 people attended the Partnership for Safety and Justice event. The group brings together victims of crime, people who have committed crimes, and their families, to advocate for a prevention-focused approach to public safety. The group has just launched a new campaign called "Stand Strong for Safety and Savings." It will seek to end mandatory minimum sentences, give judges more discretion, and re-focus spending on programs that have been proved to reduce offending, such as prevention and after-prison programs. PSJ also seeks to mandate that young people are placed in youth facilities not in adult jails. Some counties, for example, Multnomah and Clackamas, already have this policy, but in other parts of the state, youth routinely end up in adult prisons. "We have an incredible opportunity in the next 10 months to pass historic changes to the criminal justice system, David Rogers, PSJ's executive director, told supporters. "We could begin to see a much smarter approach to reducing victimization and crime."

Foes Launch Ad Campaign Significant opposition is expected, however. Not everyone agrees that reducing prison sentences is necessary and safe. Steve Doell, a co-founder of Crime Victims United and the Anti-Crime Alliance, which helped create Measure 11 and Measure 57, has created a new group called The "Truth in Sentencing Project." Doell's group has launched a radio campaign in support of current sentencing policy. The ad says that 70 percent of people in Oregon prisons are there for, "violent crimes and serious sex offenses including felony assault, armed robbery, kidnapping, manslaughter, child molestation, rape, attempted murder, and murder." A factchecking investigation by Politifact, concluded that 65 percent of people in jail are there for crimes that can automatically be considered violent. That finding, however, draws no distinction between a person who drove a getaway car during a robbery and someone who threatened a cashier with a gun, if both are convicted of robbery.Read: How One Oregon Girl Became a Measure 11 Felon

Correction: This article originally underestimated attendance at the PSJ gathering. David Rogers supplied the actual number of 120 people who signed in.

The original series centered on the Salinger family whose parents died in a car accident. The new show will follow the Acosta children as they work through an unsettling future when their parents are abruptly deported to Mexico.